The present invention relates to sealing structure of parting portions for closing and sealing the parting portions between rear ends of front doors and front ends of rear doors by parting seals provided on the front ends of the rear doors of four-door sedans or the like.
As shown in FIG. 7 to FIG. 11, an ordinary structure of closing and sealing a parting portion between a rear end of a front door 2 and a front end of a rear door 1 from an inner-cabin sides by a seal lip 30 has been disclosed (see, for example, Japanese unexamined Patent Publication No, 2000-264065). The seal lip 30 diverges from an upper part of a front end of a rear side weather strip 10 installed on a peripheral edge of a rear door 1 of the four-door sedan or the like and extends downward.
The seal lip 30 has an assembly part 32 formed on a base root 31b side thereof, Which is installed on the front end of the rear door 1. While structures of the assembly parts 32 vary, the assembly part 32 of FIG. 7 to FIG. 11 has a substantially U-shaped cross section for guiding a head 5a of a rail member 5 therein. As shown in FIG. 11, the rail member 5 is fixed on the front end of the rear door 1 by welding or the like and has a substantially T-shaped cross section which continuously extends in an upward and downward direction.
As shown in FIG. 8, when the front door 2 is closed, a hollow seal member 22 of a front side weather strip 20 of which an installation member 21 is installed on a peripheral edge of the front door 2 via a clip 6 makes elastic contact with an outer-cabin side on a front side of a center pillar 4. In the same manner, when the rear door 1 is dosed, a hollow seal member 12 of a rear side weather strip 10 of which an installation member 11 is installed on a fitting part 7 formed by bending an inner panel on a peripheral edge of the rear door 1 makes elastic contact with the outer-cabin side on a rear side of the center pillar 4.
According to the structure, the seal lip 30 decreases noise by wind which enters from the parting portion between the rear end of the front door 2 and the front end of the rear door 1 and prevents degradation in external appearance caused by the center pillar 4 visible from the parting portion.
A top end 31a side of the ordinary seal lip 30 is made of sponge rubber material while a base root 31b side is made of solid rubber material. Also, an inner-cabin side of a border between the sponge rubber material and the solid rubber material, which is a bending point 100 for the seal lip 30 to bend, is on the parting portion side on the front side of the rear door 1 (a tip side on the front side of the rear door 1) as shown in FIG. 9. Accordingly, when high pressure water 700 splashes the seal lip 30 from an outer-cabin side through the parting portion while spraying water for washing the automobiles or thunderstorm, the top end 31 a side of the seal lip 30 is curved in a manner to warp toward the inner-cabin side around the bending point 100.
In this circumstance, the top end 31a side of the seal lip 30 is curved toward the inner-cabin side (two-dotted line in FIG. 9) without making elastic contact with the center pillar 4, thereby forming a flow channel in a diagonally frontward direction from the parting portion toward the inner-cabin side.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 8, there has remained a problem that the high pressure water 700 guided along the flow channel thus formed directly hits a triangular space 9 formed by elastic contact between the hollow seal member 22 of the front side weather strip 20 and the center pillar 4 and that water enters the inner-cabin side from a space between the front side weather strip 20 and the center pillar 4.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide the sealing structure of the parting portions, capable of controlling water leak by the high pressure water which splashes the parting portions.